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Road Trips

We stopped so many times, I lost track. We see a pretty house, we stopped. We see a pretty bridge, we stopped. We see a pretty forest, we stopped. You get the the picture.

Anyway, I don’t recall which of these pictures were actually part of Big Sur and which were not. It may just be the one with the trees, but at this point, who cares. Anywhere in NorCal next to the ocean is Big Sur to me.

So the original plan was to drive all the way to Portland. But as we researched some more, the thought of visiting Portland on a three day weekend road trip began to appear a little too far-fetched, considering it would’ve been an 18 hour drive just heading there and then another 18 hours heading back, all without stopping anywhere. And that would’ve been a waste. That only left us a day to really explore the city and the area around it. So we decided to make only as far as Crater Lake. We’ll get to that in a jiffy.

For now, since we decided we won’t be able to see Multnomah Falls, might as well make up for it by checking out three different waterfalls around Mt. Shasta. It was definitely worth stopping by.

The first waterfall was a hidden one. Probably my favorite and you’ll see why. You had to follow an active railroad by the river and then stumble down a hill, following the sound of crashing water. Yeah, technically it was illegal to get there and local authorities discourage it, but c’mon now. It was dark place covered in shade, so definitely recommend a tripod for this one. It was peaceful and barely anyone else was around. So pretty.

Mossbrae Falls

The next waterfall was a tourist trap. Bigger, louder and lots and lots of tourists here. It was also very rocky and unstable, so trying to get close to the waterfall while carrying heavy camera equipment and a tripod on a hot and sunny day was no easy feat. And if you don’t want to capture any tourists loitering around in your pictures, you do have to get closer. Unless you’re like me and carry around a heavy telephoto lens, then you wouldn’t have to. Yay.

But I did, anyway… yay again.

McCloud Middle Falls

The third waterfall was also just as crowded as McCloud Middle Falls, but since this one was larger and more powerful, not too many tourists got too close to it… except for this one annoying, suicidal guy who kept swimming close to it. But other than that, taking shots of this one using my telephoto lens was pretty simple. Just sat back on a corner and started shooting. The hike to this waterfall was a bit tough, though. Lots uphill and downhill trails. But still worth it.

I know it doesn’t look that bad with the sun out and not too much snow, but seriously, for a girl born and raised in a tropical island and then growing up in sunny SoCal, this place is Antarctica. Not that I don’t love the cold. I LOVE the cold. However, it probably would’ve been better had I packed a little more, shall we say, properly. You see, running around in this snowy area in snowboarding boots, snowboarding gloves and snowboarding pants with a snowboarding jacket while carrying my usual freakin’ 50 lbs. (ok, maybe more like 20 lbs. But it felt like 50!) camera equipment wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world. But hey, at least I kept warm. I don’t usually go to snowy areas, so yeah, snowboarding gear was my only option.

Temperature in this area, I’d say, was around average –10°F. Plus it was windy as eff. My entire body including my face was covered like ninja.